Elemtilas wrote:How do your folks handle the conflict between offering hospitality sex to a visitor and the tabu against mating with one of the Unwinged, who happens to be your guest?

I'll let atzla Aceres Qalenremi Adanos answer for Naqil:

"If we condense your question down to any situation in which an obligation and taboo happen to intersect, then the answer is that we do whichever we would have an easier time arguing should one of our rivals try to take advantage of it, or try to compromise.

In your particular case, if we did have a "hospitality sex" custom -which we don't- and if the term "Unwinged" meant anything to us -which it doesn't-, then I suppose my first impulse would be to use my age as an excuse to offer you one of my slaves instead. Let them take the taboo on their heads."

---

The Folk of the Empire That Calls The Sun, on the other hand, would fall very heavily on not offering sex to that guest. They don't offer hospitality sex in the first place, but even if they did have such an obligation they wouldn't. Taboos are never to be broken, for religious reasons.

(in the far future, when the Folk divide and become the many Fae races, taboos will still be unbreakable for the very different reason that they're usually enforced by a geas and are thus literally unbreakable)

Next: How do your conpeople enforce promises and obligations? Are they enforced at all?

Firebird766 wrote:How do your conpeople enforce promises and obligations? Are they enforced at all?

In Kuvia, you simply do not renege on a promise or obligation (so long as it's something you have control over; promising "to win the tournament" is different, and come to think of it, they probably differentiate the two kinds of promise). Depending on the scale of the promise, failing to come through can result in light social disappointment to total social ostricization. People who don't fulfill their promises are not welcome in polite society. (People therefore don't often make lots of promises that are difficult to fulfill)

That said, the legal system is heavily involved in contracts (to the point where some basics of Law and Contracts are taught in school), and contracts are generally written to explain the punishments for breach of contract and that sort of thing.

For example, in the first day of class in schools, the teacher passes out a syllabus contract that spells out quite plainly the responsibilities of the teacher (in terms of office hours and material to cover) and the student (such as studying) along with the schedule, and the grading system. Not necessarily a contract inasmuch as there is something obvious to "break", but it's more indicative of how ingrained into Kuvian society the idea of formal legal agreement is.

The government enforces contracts through the usual methods, with the lightest being fines, moving up to jail time in egregious circumstances.

Next:What is your conpeople's opinion of war? Do they like it? Shun it? Are there rules of engagement? What weapons do they use?

Firebird766 wrote:How do your conpeople enforce promises and obligations? Are they enforced at all?

Daine again: well we understand a distinction between cuhithyostain, which is to be placed under mystical obligation, which may never be broken and faderilein, to make an earnest promise which is subject to circumstance. A boy under cuhithyoste to never use eating sticks with his right hand will sooner eat like a dog than break his obligation. One never knows what horrible consequence will fall to one who does break it! There is no one who "enforces" one's mystical obligations, but you can be certain that the punishment will be spectacular! An ordinary faderillê is enforced only by one's own conscience and will to persevere. Of course, an oath or promise made before witnesses will also be enforced by the knowing of the community who bore witness. They can't punish, but a promise lightly disregarded, odd as that would be for a Daine to do!, is only made by an immature person. Someone who can not yet be relied upon to take responsibility.

Axiem wrote:What is your conpeople's opinion of war? Do they like it? Shun it? Are there rules of engagement? What weapons do they use?

Daine: for us, and among ourselves, war is an exercise in honour, grace and agility rather than a way of slaughtering people. We will only fight thát kind of war if we are first attacked with violence. Our kind of warfare, yes we do love it! A great battle will attract the whole district, as to a fair or festival. In fact, at least in the Lands of Sunrise, we most often conduct such warfare during a great regional fair. The weapons used are very traditional, and the rules are strict. First, you must understand that warriors have first to prepare themselves for a war. They do this by bathing, combing out and plaiting their hair, preening every last feather, applying beautiful designs in ink upon their bodies. Then they must dress for the war. No warrior ever wears any kind clothing or armor, except for a headdress and perhaps a long cloak, fastened at the neck. Every kind of silver or bronze arm ring, wristlet, neck ring, knee chain and anklet a warrior can find, he'll put those on. Lastly, the weapons themselves: you must understand that these weapons are not intended for killing the enemy, but rather are intended to demonstrate the warrior's skill and grace in combat.

The weapons we use in our own wars are the shoulder-spear and the long staff and the short staff. The shoulder-spear is very long, perhaps twice the height of a tall hunter (14 feet or so) and made from a thin wand of bamboo; and it is thrown using a talgung, which looks like the bone of an arm, and is sometimes made from one. The long staff is half the height of the spear and is thicker and made from wood; the short staff is half that height again and rather thicker. The long staff is wielded with two hands and the short staff in one or the other; the other hand wears a kind of leather cestus, padded on the back side and leaving the hand free to grasp or wield.

First, all the warriors line up facing one another, and they will begin the war songs. Horns are blown and bamboo gongs are shaken and great drums are beaten. During the war dance, two champions will dance towards one another. They will strut and seek to impress each other with their wings outspread and they'll circle one another. Then, suddenly the singing and music will cease and with a cry they will lay into one another and grapple. The fight of the champions can at times be quite brutal, but serious injuries are really only incurred to one's own negligence rather than any menace by one's foe. Whoever wins this contest receives an accolade from the queen and his warriors are granted the right to being the battle.

Now you must understand that a battle comprises three parts. First, the drums ring out again and with a great cry, the winning champion's warriors will cast their spears towards their foes. They do not seek to hurt anyone, but in stead seek to land their spears as close to an opponent as possible. It certainly takes more skill to land a spear close to a boy rather than just whack him in the chest with it! But it also takes much skill for those receiving the spears to judge where and how close they will land. It is no loss of honour to step aside from a badly aimed spear! It is a great honour indeed to dance with the foeman's spear and let it skillfully land in some unlikely spot. Why, I once danced with a spear, beautifully cast and high arcked -- as it descended, I kept my eyes on its flight, and cocked my head -- just like that -- and the spear whistled right through the space between my left ear and my head. Then I stepped away and saluted the spear thrower, and she returned the salute for a good spear dance!

The second part of the war is fought with the long staves. Now everyone spreads out and the gongs and horns ring out again and the drums beat faster. Now, this is a more earnest dance! Each pair of warriors leaps and crouches, flings himself through the air, wields the staff either in the middle like a quarterstaff or near the end like a great cudgel. Again, grace and agility are the keys and those who would fight in a war must practice these skills long, or they will find their knuckles bloodied and their hair touseled and their ribs cracked! Eventually, one of the pair will clearly outdo the other, and the less skilled will be compelled to back off and bow out of the fighting.

Lastly, those who are remaining retrieve their short staves and wrap on their cestus. Now, the drums and gongs will beat very fast and with a great roar the warriors will charge at one another, cudgels in hand! The padded part of the cestus they use to block blows by the staff, but also to buffet one's opponent, and sometimes bring him down! Great skill is required to swing the cudgel, and greater agility is needed to keep getting your jaw cracked or your arm broken! This last time, it will be clear who the victors are and they will receive high accolades for their skill and bravery and will be served first during the great feast.

There are always a number of warriors who've been hurt, and they'll be tended by the local healers; and there will always be some wanlucky kids who got in to the fighting too soon and end up dead. There is always much sadness when this happens, but we all understand the risk when we make the choice to fight in a war like this!

As to the other kind of war, the war of violence, we enjoy that kind of fighting as well, and are skilled at it. But like I said, we will only fight this kind of war against those who would do us great harm or violence. Now, in this kind of war, where one expects to slay or be slain, you must understand that it is very different from our own happy affair! Now, our warriors will wear their hair sensibly tied at the back and only a few choice bracelets or neck rings. Here, stout armor is worn: a cap of bronze and thick woven leather; a breast guard of bronze plates or thickly woven hard leather; arm and shin guards of bronze strapped on, a small shield, a studded codpiece and a kind of broad leather belt with a belly plate and thick strips that protect the thighs.

The weapons of choice are stout swords of bronze, a kind of staff with a curved blade at one end a weighted ball at the other, a meteor hammer, studded cestus. Not even Men are so cowardly as to use a hunting weapon like a dwawangcallu , a bow or a talgung. Those that do fight in such a dastardly manner are treated without mercy. The only rules for this kind of war are to come back alive or die with as much grace and honour as you may.

We do not prefer to fight this kind of war. It is a waste, and we do not enjoy killing. But when roused, the red-rage comes upon us and Daine warriors in their rage are unstoppable! I've seen fellows with wings hacked off, bellies slit open, heads bashed and arms snapped off at the wrist fight on with their jagged stumps until at last their blood is all gone and they at last fall dead.

Next: How do your folk treat people of different kindreds or genders differently?

If we stuff the whole chicken back into the egg, will all our problems go away? --- Wandalf of Angera

Alynnidalar wrote:What methods of transportation are available to your conpeople?

A surprisingly wide variety of contraptions and devices are available for locomotion in the World. They can be roughly divided into three broad categories: native, technological and thaumological.

Native forms of getting around include the basics: feet and domesticated beasts suitable for riding, drawing waggons or bearing burdens. Horse and ox are well enough known as animals for riding and burden bearing respectively. But there are several kindreds of camelid that can carry cargo or a rider as well as several kindred of oliphant that can do the same, only more. Time was, not so long ago, when the royal posts ran regular routes of mail and passenger coaces drawn by diminutive oliphants. And indeed that noble beast figures prominently in many civic arms, postage stamp images and coin & banknote designs. The oliphant is also a legendary and semi-mythical carrier of great burdens, for was it not the case that the early evangelical saints, Proteon, Deuterion and Trition, came into the eastlands riding upon a great oliphant drawn waggon?

This leads us to the technological forms: There are various kinds of waggons, traps, sedans and so forth that are placed on wheels and drawn by some animal. Not a whole lot unlike the situation *here* in the 19th century. The same principles have also been applied to seaships. Of course, many run before the wind by the application of sails; others run in spite of it by the application of banks of oars or else water wheels driven by animals walking upon a treadmill. Sometimes a combination of technologies will be used.

In town, there are any number of triacuclos, omnibusses, sedan chairs and the like that help move people around the city. A triacuclos is a small pedal driven or animal driven kind of cart that can take small loads of goods or a couple passengers.

Thaumological means of locomotion present the highest attainment thus far of the ingenuity of Daine and Men. The best example of thaumological locomotion in any land is the postway, a kind of railway, broad in gauge and able to carry a veritable caravan worth of goods and people in one go.The network is sparse and the ancillary infrastructure relatively non-existent, but hey! That's half the fun of getting there! There are also airships, the sole domain of Dainekind, that ply the airs above Gea. These all operate using what are called homunculus motivators, a kind of motive device that react to the input of thaumo-magento-electrical fields. Once set in motion, they may be applied to drive shafts, fly wheels, belts and chains of various kinds that in turn become a powerful drive train for a powerful vehicle like a brontoreede (the great engines used to drive the caravan trains) or airships of various kinds.

Speaking of airships, there are two kindreds. One is the "bird" -- much like an aeroplane, in consists of a longish fuselage with wings (one to nine pairs), a broad tail and one or more motivators that drive great fans that provide both forward motion and lift. The other kind is the "bireme", which consists of a longish ship-like hull suspended from one or more floating-gas filled bladders. Smaller fans and lateral fins are used to provide thrust and turning while the gas lifts up the great ship.

If we stuff the whole chicken back into the egg, will all our problems go away? --- Wandalf of Angera

Ebon wrote:Which professions do your conpeople look down on? Are any professions downright taboo? Which consequences do people working in these professions suffer?

In Kuvia, generally mindless physical labor is looked down upon; generally people would say such things are for slaves to do. While certainly one cannot fully avoid it (packing one's backpack, for instance), actually doing it repeatedly or especially for an occupation would be laughable to them. "Day laborer" is not really a thing that exists.

They're not entirely against physical labor, mind. More artistic craftsmanship such as carpentry or sculpture are perfectly fine—even if there might actually be a fair amount of rote physical labor, it's in how it's perceived by people in general.

I haven't particularly written on Kuvia's slavery system yet—part of that is because well, slavery is icky, and people might get the wrong idea about what I actually think based on what exists in my conworld; and part of that is because I haven't fully fleshed out what I think it really looks like, because it depresses me when I read about American slavery, which tends to dominate the research I've done—but it plays into this. Someone who is doing a lot of physical labor—such as in a field harvesting or planting or whatever—is simply assumed to be a slave. While there's no real consequence for someone who might be doing this work that is not a slave, they would be looked at strangely. This might lead to social estrangement, but not fines or anything like that.

Though, there is likely interplay between the lower classes of non-slaves and slaves, which I have to ruminate over.

Next: what are the metaphysical elements of your conculture, if any? (E.g. earth/fire/wind/water in "the classics")

In Naqil: bodily functions, religion, and medical stuff. For example, Netza in the Multiverse Inn? When he says something's "rotting," he's using a particularly rude version of the word that doesn't really translate across to English, which is why Risatri reprimanded him for saying it.

In Unnamed Sci-Fi World: bodily functions, the dangers of space ("dust" being a particularly common one, as space dust can absolutely wreck things at high speeds), and the occasional alien loan-word.
The latter can get pretty odd-sounding if it involves alien biology in any way. Like, the cliffdogs? One of their swears that has sorta drifted over to humans is the phrase "mostly silk." It's a reference to the cliffdog reproductive process, and it's the equivalent of telling someone they have a tiny dick, only with extra scorn. It's also a modulated whistle in its untranslated form.

In the City: anything and everything, but most commonly anything degrading, in the sense of something falling apart or otherwise becoming unusable. So rust, corrosion, splinters, etcetera. The second most common are religious swears, but these frequently regard what is considered valuable in that religion. For the Followers of the Engineer, that would be ink, fuel, knowledge and understanding. "Rust and ink" handily combines both those categories, and is a pretty common low-key swear along the lines of "oh for fuck's sake."

I'll just say at the outset that this is the motto of the great medical college at Auntimoany, carved in great runes within the somber granite slab over the main gate: coueid nonne te mahtat, te refortiabet. Ya, they rather fancy mottoes written in Rumelian.

Among Men:
Medicine is actually rather advanced, offering one a bizarre array of the stonishingly cruel, wonderfully unusual and, just occasionally, the brilliantly forward thinking. Of all the philosophical disciplines, it is probably the most experimental in nature. Experimental due especially to the plentiful supply of research victims: unfortunate Daine who have been captured by gangs of body snatchers and Medical Students who must complete their dissections & vivisections before end of term, usually.

Medical science has long understood what we think of as basic physiological and anatomical concepts. They’ve long understood that blood travels through veins and is moved by the heart (they divvy up the circulatory system a little differently, because they don’t understand that the blood is oxygenated, so don’t understand our concept of artery/vein); they know that the lungs take in air and that stopping them up will cause death (but don’t understand why); they are aware of the function of nerves; they are aware of the extent and function of the gut, the kidneys and the female reproductive system. Mind you, what they know best is the Daine organ systems and responses! But some comparisons have been made by slicing into human criminals. Most Daines' internals are similar enough, though they have about a 50/50 split between levo and dextro orientation.

This line of inquiry has led to a very advanced surgical practice, considering the essentially eternal bronze age technology level. They don’t know about microbes (I don’t think anyone’s ever thought of reversing the telespeculon, turning it into a parviopticon), but do know that hand washing is dreadfully important. Any good surgeon will surely wash his hands before leaving the theatre for lunch! They have some rudimentary understanding of anaesthesia, having long used sweet vitriol and sugar of coca as anaesthetics, also presurgical preparation (this largely means strapping the patient down or calling on the medical college's beadles to sufficiently subdue the patient), postoperative recovery (for those who survive, anyway), sterile technique (largely involving the dousing of instruments and gauze in alcohol during use) and the dreadful importance of haemostasis to successful surgery (again, one of the beadles' jobs is tending the surgical theatre's braziers and keeping hot the various cautery rods).

Surgeons are not afraid of going after bowel obstructions, hernias, cataracts, and all the lump-n-bumps of minor surgery. They’re pretty handy in the orthopaedics department as well, and have experimented some with fixing complex fractures with strips of metal; they even go into the brain and eyes with little fear. Mind you, prospective patients may very well approach an impending surgery with rather more apprehension!

After the surgeon and beadles are done with you, a third practitioner is called upon, assuming you have paid his fee. A very specialised surgeon is the Suturer. He's got his stock of silks and cottons, tendons, guts of every kind of animal and in a wide variety of sizes. He is always accompanied by his own beadle who keeps everything sorted. Usually the big hospitals and medical colleges will have suturers on staff along with their surgeons. A small barber-surgeon's workshop will only rarely employ a suturer.

On the other hand, internal medicine still largely relies on a physick pulling the handiest bottle of green goo off the shelf, informing the patient that This Will Work, and charging half a crown for the service. Much of the practice of the physick involves what we'ld now call quackery: nostrums and "patent medicines", non-sense manipulations and other hoci-poci. Medical practices, such as using "Doctor Goosequill's No. 9 Powder Enema" or "os cleansing" -- which involves burning a specially prepared candle in one of the body's openings -- or "hair follicle acupuncture" range from the merely odd to the downright dangerous. Some of the more dangerous involve inserting wires into selected parts of the body and attaching the wires to either batteries or one of several kinds of electrically active animals. Others involve acupuncture-like proceedures. Such practices are designed to "alter the flow of shi in the individual" and while it may be true that a person's shi is altered, the risk for infection or electrocution is real.

On Dentistry:
Probably the most disgusting thing human doctors do is capture a hapless Daine, yank some of his teeth out and sell them to poorly dentated human customers. A Daine will eventually regrow the teeth. This is one of the first actual operations a young surgeon will do.

In general terms, even strict Mannish utilitarians don’t generally advocate chopping up healthy people to provide organs to cure sick people. However, what counts as people is different in different societies. In most human societies, humans obviously count as people (although, it is true that some people are more human than others...) and one of the designated functions of “less useful people” is “resource for more useful people”. Just as, in the bad old days when there were times of famine, one of their functions might be “emergency food source”.

Of course, said “less useful people” obviously attempt to flee these particular usages or alter them whenever possible, since it is a rare "less useful person" indeed who wholeheartedly concurs with the notion that he is, in point of fact, so less useful as to be best used as source of harvestable bits and pieces or else as fodder for something else.

In several places in the Eastlands, Daine have been used for just such purposes. Teeth usually. Daine have characteristically good teeth, and when knocked out, will grow back. And what is more, every thirty or forty years or so, they grow a whole new set. The more entrepreneurial sort of dentists have taken keen notice of these facts and have set out to make good use of them by looking upon a likely Daine not so much as a fellow person and child of the Heavenly Father as a handy (and basically free) source of high quality dental implants. Which said dentist can relatively safely harvest and bill his own patients for. So not only do the wealthier humans get a good set of living dentures, but the resource is renewable. It's green dentistry at its best!

On Prosthetics:
Prosthetics is probably the sanest aspect of medicine in The World. The most famous Prosthetist was Rondo of Iberia, who in the 18th century constructed the now famous Golden Hand for Hanno, Autarch of Cartadash. It consisted of a gilt bronze sleeve that fit over the Autarch's left stump, the arm of which he had lost in battle, and had articulating gilt bronze digits complete with silver finger nails, fine leather pads on the inner side for a grip and wire linkages that were attached to Hanno's feet. When he flexed or extended his feet and toes, he could form a fist or move individual fingers. Springs of some sort were used to help return the device to the hand's "natural posture". One ingenious feature of the device was that it was "programmable": secondary wires could be attached in different ways to form oratorical gestures for mornings in the Senate. Other prosthetics that have been made are life-like legs (with articulating feet) and non-functional hands. The legs are generally constructed of carved wood covered with bronze sheething (with musculature and scars as an optional extra); the feet of which are hinged and return to normal posture via springs linkages. They've perfected a knee joint (for amputations above the knee) that also has spring linkages.

Lancetry: a Dying Art
One branch of medicine that, thank goodness, has mostly died away is bloodletting. The 13th century Rumnian physician Pancrates wrote in the treatise De Ex Sanguinarion: "Any fool can see that the last thing a wounded man needs is a 'good bloodletting'!" Nevertheless, it remains a posh treatment for various fluxes and agues amongst ladies of means. One suspects this is more because lancetmen tend to be good with the ladies, handsome and their offices posh and cater to ladies' grooming habits -- often the lancetman's parlour employs girls who do hair and manicures and similar treatments.

Among Daine:
I can’t think of any Daine that really practice medicine as we would understand it. Most of their healers’ time is taken by wound, parasite and poison treatment - i.e., healing what’s broken. Daine don’t succumb to microbes and are very resistant to DNA drift; though they can be poisoned and can suffer from a variety of internal and external parasites. These are generally pretty easy to take care of, however. Hygiene generally does the trick for anything external, and a touch of dwimmery and sound herbcraft & wortlore does for the internal affliction.

Daine practice a kind of transplant process, but it is almost entirely magical in nature and it usually involves parts from an animal or beast. The only known way to reverse the effects of the Change is to quickly seek for a powerful healer who can use the body of a slain animal, usually a wolf or a bear, or some beast such as a warg to cure the boy of his condition. Daine healers may also stimulate the replacement of missing limbs. This is pretty deep dwimmery and not many healers have these gifts.

Daine healers (female only) have long known that changes in hue of the eye indicate changes in mood. Some have thought that physical, mental and spiritual dysfunction can be discovered by careful study of an individual's eye colour.

Daine healers have also long used certain kinds of salamanders to shock a person whose heart has stopped. This is the same kind of salamander used to power various devices that use the destilled spirits of Elektra City.

Hotai Medicine: I'd Rather be Dead Thank You!
Hotai medicine consists of three basic pathways. One is practically a matter of forcing the patient to drink one of a number of horribly dreadful curative / restorative potions until he recovers; the other involves the rough manipulation of a fracture, the removal of broken-off projectiles (arrow heads or the like) or the swift amputation of a crushed limb in a rather hack-and-burn way; while the third simply involves snuffing the patient if it looks like he won't pull through. Strangely, for all their savagery and primitivity, Hotai potions are generally quite effective.

On Quackery:
Quackery is certainly alive and kicking in the world of Men and their multitudinous ailments. And, for the average person, it is sometimes a rather difficult choice to be made, whether to consult with a quack doctor and his sure-fire cure or, heaven forbid, an actual doctor of physicl! Either way, you get scammed of your money, but at least your misery can be relieved somewhat by the quack's snappy patter and charm! Some quacks are travelling folk, making the circuit of all the big towns and cities, selling their wares and their services. They usually set up in a market stall, plaster the public places with handbills advertising their arrival and wait to rake in the dalers and pence from poor suckers hoping for a "sure and sovereign cure" for all their aches, pains, agues, gouts, phlems, phlams and crotchy-rot.

Quack medicine is very hit or miss. Rarely are their potions any more than a mixture of various herbs mixed with coagulated pig blood or salt of saturn or borax all laced with sugar and honey and dissolved in strong alcohol and put up in fancy glass bottles. Sometimes a quack will actually get things right. One good example of quack medicine that has migrated is this quack doctor's adaptation of an old veterinary cure for phlegm in livestock:

It has long been known by veterinarians (especially those that work with the hunting dogs of the nobility or with the racing horses of the quality) that the technique called couppaticom, or rapidly but gently clapping the patient upon the back, is a helpful treatment for phlegm in the chest or pneumonia. The gentle clapping helps break up clods of mucus and the patient is better able to hack them up, thus eventually relieving the symptoms.

In xix century Auntimoany, a back alley physician came up with a fad treatment that took the world (or at least the countries of the Eastlands) by storm. Rather than ordering his slave to perform the couppaticom, he arranged to secure a small squadron of perhaps eight Pixies, small sprites of the woodlands around, to a kind of vest that was wrapped around the sick patient. The wee Pixies, desirous of escaping the confines of the vest, would soon begin to kick and punch and pummel whatever was between them and freedom. In this case, namely, the material of the vest and the patient around which the vest was wrapped.

After a quarter of an hour of being gently kicked by eight Pixies trapped in a vest, the vest was unwrapped and the petient was made to cough repeatedly. Often times, much sputum would be coughed up and many patients recovered from their infections rather quicker than those who underwent the more traditional treatments like rubrefacients applied to the chest or else being abused by the lancetmen and their incessant bloodletting.

The physician in question was one Peter Pansyshade, and his device is called Peter Pansyshade's Particular Pneumonia Corrective. Many doctors and patients have sworn by this now tried and true therapy. Back in the day, Dr. Pansyshade used to advertise his clinic in the broadsheets using (almost assuredly somewhat hyped up) testimonials.

Said Samwise H. of Auntimoany: "Pixies may not kick very hard, but when there's a lot of em in Dr. Pansyshade's patent Corrective, they really do pack a whallop!" Said Leugol M. of Shady Graves: "Before arriving in Dr. Pansyshade's clinic, I could hardly take a breath for all the pneumonicals [sic] in me lungs. But now, after taking Dr. Pansyshade's Corrective over a course of three days, not only am I still alive, but I feel as if I can breathe deeper than ever!"

Of course, not all of the testimonials seemed quite right. Said Lucas P. of Auntimoany: "After taking four treatments with the Corrective at Dr. Pansyshade's clinic, I was able to walk again and also the callouses on my hands cleared up!"

Next: If anyone, who is taught to read, write and do sums in your culture?

If we stuff the whole chicken back into the egg, will all our problems go away? --- Wandalf of Angera

elemtilas wrote:Next: If anyone, who is taught to read, write and do sums in your culture?

In Kuvia, all free citizens have compulsory schooling up to sometime in their mid-to-late teens. Topics of that schooling are reading/writing, Kuvian literature, legal theory, arithmetic, science, religion, and probably some options for trades, music, arts, and so on. The public schools are actually pretty good, at least for churning out citizens who can engage in basic contracts and/or make a place in society. Children of wealthy families go to private academies, which gives them better networking connections (and name on a piece of paper), but otherwise is pretty similar education to public schools.

By the time students reach Upper Form (roughly corresponding to ages 16, 17, and 18), the curriculum focuses a little in the private schools, and people focus on their area of expertise: science, art, trade, etc. After that comes University, which is much more focused.

Slaves in Kuvia (that is, those born into it, as opposed to those acquired as prisoners of war/piracy) are also given some rudimentary education, as what use is a slave who can't read or write? Even day-laborer slaves need to be able to read their work contracts, and be able to do some basic math on the work site. They are therefore also inculcated into Kuvian culture and language. (The exception is robots, but that's a different topic altogether...)

So Kuvia on the whole has a pretty literate culture in terms of basic literacy and math.

In Naqil, bathing is frequent. Once per day is considered the minimum. It's not just a matter of staying clean- public bathhouses serve an important social function as well. Commoners and nobles alike come to gossip and keep abreast of the local news, businessmen negotiate backroom deals, politicians take the opportunity to get to know the realm (or, sometimes, just cultivate the image of getting to know the realm). Those who can't afford the bathhouse bathe in streams or make do with filling a bin from the rain barrels, but this is considered a poor substitute at best.

Kyskin is very dry, so water is for drinking and agriculture and not much else. If you bathe too frequently (say, sponging yourself down more than once a week), you are wasting water and should be ashamed of yourself.

And why yes the vast difference between these has led to some diplomatic difficulties before.

Next question: How does your conculture handle politics and diplomacy with neighboring cultures?

What do your conpeople think of toys for children? What kinds do they have? Would they think toys with sound are enchanted with an evil spirit?
It is weird to distinguish toys for children and toys for adults.
Sound devices are okay for them.
They have cards, board games, teddy animals, small statues, small bricks, snowboard(sandboards actually), etc.

What do your conpeople think about space? What's up there?
The sky is an infinite space of air with thousands of flying lamps. They do not know what void is.
The sea is infinite as well.
The earth is infinite downwards.

How would your conpeople react to an extraterrestrial encounter?
They do not know the concept of planet. They may think that extraterrestrial beings came from other dimensional planes.
The reception would be friendly and they would be curious.

How do your conpeople enforce promises and obligations? Are they enforced at all?
The culture thinks that promises are important.
People that break promise lose the trust of other people. They always try to fulfill promises for their honor.

Contracts are promises legally enforced. They are signed with witnesses. The failure in fulfilling the contract is punished.

What is your conpeople's opinion of war? Do they like it? Shun it? Are there rules of engagement? What weapons do they use?
They do not like war. War is the act of defending against invaders.
War has no rules, they are just ordered to do anything to kill the enemies with no mercy.
They have blades, spears, clubs, arrows, tongfas, unarmed combat, flails, poison, fire.
They can also release snakes, scorpions and lions to attack the enemies.
They also have devices like catapult, traps, big bows, etc.
They have shield, armor and helmet as well.

How often do your conpeople bathe?
They clean only what is dirty and keep enough hygienics. They get water from wells, aqueducts or directly from rivers.

As for leisure, hot springs, sea and rivers are limited to few areas, and few cities have public pools.

If anyone, who is taught to read, write and do sums in your culture?
The parents teach everything that the children need, including reading and sums.
Colleges provide advanced teaching and they have to work for the school to study.
Next question: How does your conculture handle politics and diplomacy with neighboring cultures?

English is not my native language. Sorry for any mistakes or lack of knowledge when I discuss this language. | | | | |

On the whole, modern Mto is pretty diplomatic; there hasn't (to my best knowledge) been a major war in a couple of decades, though things are a little tense between Kuvia and Hîgara at the moment. No official war, but their ships have been known to get into skirmishes. There's practically no trading going on (making Hîgaran silk an expensive luxury in Kuvia). There might be more I'm not aware of in the world because I'm focusing on Kuvia for novel reasons, but I'm pretty sure things are in relative "peace".

The embassy/ambassador system is pretty similar to Earth, where each nation establishes an Embassy in foreign nations' capitals, with a team of diplomats lead by an ambassador to be a point of contact with the local government, and to be a touchpoint for citizens to their native governments. For instance, the Kuvian embassy in Kyamto is where one would go to manage official government paperwork such as census or tax forms, if you were living in Situnya.

While clearly the competing nations would have strong opinions about each other's politics, to date there's been no obvious meddling. Unless you count Kuvia's attempted colonization of Hîgara, but the details of that I'm still working out.

Modern Mto is pretty steady state when it comes to international politics; however, some things are brewing (cf. novel) that will drastically change that.

In both Naqil: maize and maize-based products. This is also what they eat on every other day of the year.

A bit more seriously, Naqil's holiday food is mostly regular food, just in greater amounts and arranged somewhat more fancily. There's an increase in more expensive foods and spices around celebratory holidays like Unification Day and the Year's End, but it's not enough to really consider it part of the holiday traditions. Year's End involves a lot of fire (bonfires, racing with torches, dancing with flaming whips, etc) so there's a tendency to have more food than usual be cooked over an open flame, but that's more or less a matter of practicality than anything else.

In the City, the type of food available varies wildly with little to no rhyme or reason as to what is available from the Markets or is found in the Underground at any given time. This makes associating certain foods with certain holidays difficult at best. Outsiders bring in their own traditions, but sooner or later there just plain won't be any of their traditional foods available at the right time.

So basically on holidays they generally eat exactly the same thing that they eat on every other occasion: whatever happens to be available that light-cycle.

In Unnamed Science-Fiction World, the name-pending alliance of human nations celebrates the day when they were first contacted by extraterrestrial life. If you're in the Great Trade City, this celebration may or may not entail a very hands-on approach to figuring out which alien foods are edible, which are tasty but have no nutritional value, and which ones will make you wish in very short order that you hadn't just eaten that thing. Foods that are known or suspected to be outright toxic are filtered out beforehand.